Eldorado hoping for changes
 
By Jack Douglas, Jr.
Dallas/Ft, Worth Star-Telegram
 
Residents of the small West Texas town of Eldorado said Tuesday that they hope a nearby polygamous religious sect will stop believing in marriages between underage girls and older men following the arrest of the group's leader near Las Vegas.

One official said that little, if anything, has changed in the daily routine within the compound walls of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, four miles from Eldorado, after sect leader Warren Jeffs, 50, was arrested late Monday.

"They're really low-keyed people. If you didn't fly over them, you wouldn't know a soul was there," said Schleicher County Justice of the Peace James Doyle, who flew over the compound Tuesday.

But while it may have not been visible, members of the Texas group seemed upset, said Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran, who informed a "source" within the compound that Jeffs, who was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, was arrested on a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

"I think this is a major blow to them," Doran said, describing his conversation with his source in the church. "You could tell it was stressful news to him."

The unlawful-flight charge relates to charges in Utah and Arizona accusing Jeffs of arranging marriages between underage girls and older men, tantamount to being an accomplice to rape. If convicted, the religious leader could face life in prison.

Doran said it is the prevailing hope in Eldorado that a "less radical" person becomes the leader of the sect, resulting in a "more open community, where there's not so much mystery surrounding it."

Tami Griffin, manager of Shot's convenience store in Eldorado, agreed. "I'm hoping, maybe, whoever takes over ... will put an end to the adult-child marriages," Griffin said.

But Gloria Belman, cashier at the Star Stop Food Mart, said she is worried that someone more extreme than Jeffs will take over the group. If that happens, she said, "I'm thinking about moving to Midland, me and my three kids."

Sect members took up residence at the 1,671-acre YFZ Ranch, short for "Yearning for Zion," in the summer of 2004, and an estimated 70 people are believed to live there. About 180 additional members are living there temporarily to do construction work; the sect has an estimated 10,000 members nationwide, most of them in Utah and Arizona.

There was evidence that Jeffs was at the Texas compound during the 2005 New Year's weekend for the dedication of a large temple, and had "come and gone" on several occasions after that, said Randy Mankin, publisher and editor of the Eldorado Success weekly newspaper.

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Jack Douglas Jr., 817-390-7700 jld@star-telegram.com
 
dfw.com
Originally published August 30, 2006
 
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